Just Another Day
by Crimson Justice
Summary: Ichigo trains with the Vizards.POSSIBLE SPOILERS Set just after the fight in Chp235 of the manga.Rated for Language. CURRENTLY ON HIATUS I am totally out of ideas right now. If you want, post your suggestions via Reviews. Thanks for all your help.
1. Training: The Growth of Power

**Just another day.**

**DISCLAIMER**

_BLEACH _belongs exclusively to Kubo Tite, and whoever is responsible for distributing the anime and/or manga. I don't own it; I'm just a fan with no job or money.

This is just random, something I wrote to kill time. Spoilers for Manga! Ichigo trains, with the Vizards...and without them. I really just wrote this as an excuse to have Ichigo kick Hiyori's ass, because I don't like her. Also, I randomly decided to throw Lisa Yadomaru in this, because her I do like. I also wound up delving into the bond between Ichigo, Zangetsu, and Ichigo's Inner Hollow, and giving Ichigo and Rukia some time as well. It's set after the last fight with Grimmjaw Jaggerjack(Chp235).

Rated for Language. I mean, it's Ichigo for crissakes!

**AN:**_Italics_ is thought-type stuff. Like Ichigo's Hollow or Zangetsu talking to Ichigo in his head. Or Ichigo talking to them.

* * *

-"Kurosaki?" 

-"Hmm?"

-"Get out of my face."

-"I'm not. I'm just wondering what you're reading."

-"What else does that girl read? It's porno, strawberry! WWWOOOW! Mind the fro, asshole!" Love stepped back, as a six-foot-long, two-and-a-half foot wide sword slammed into the wall about a half-inch from his head.

-"THEN DON'T CALL ME A FRIGGIN' STRAWBERRY!" Kurosaki Ichigo, now sixteen, held Zangetsu's hilt-wrap in his hand. He pulled on it, and the heavy blade sailed back. Ichigo let the sword spin in a lazy circle to his side.

_'Tch...You stole my move, King.'_

_-'Shut up.'_

-"LISA! Quit readin' that shit and get your ass over here! Kurosaki, quit showin' off and come here so I can kick your ass!"

-"Fine, Hiyori, I'll be right there."

Yadomaru Lisa closed her magazine, put it down, and looked back at the other Vizards. "Anybody touches this, and I will kill them."

Ichigo stood ready, sword in hand. Opposite him stood his opponent, Sarugaki Hiyori. Short, bossy, annoying. To the left, the dark-haired Lisa waited, with a chronograph.

"On my signal! Three."

_'Let's do this, Zangetsu.'_

"Two"

_'Tch. Forget someone?'_

_'No.'_

"One"

_'All three of us...'_

"NOW!"

-"Ichigo, you bastard, you can't do this properly with just shikai!" Hiyori, already wearing her mask, the sign of her released Hollow, screamed. Ichigo smirked.

-"Says you." His voice echoed oddly. Then, he vanished. "Back here, short stuff."

Shunpo - Flash Step. He was behind her. That echo in his voice again. The Mask was on, covering Ichigo's face completely...Odd, he'd normally go bankai before summoning it. Hiyori sneered, and prepared to attack him.

-"I'm gonna wipe that smirk off your face so fast, you're gonna..." As she swung her sword down, Ichigo raised his, blocking the stroke, still smirking.

-"Getsuga Tenshou." The force of the attack slammed Hiyori into the warehouse's back wall, ten meters behind them.

-"You asshole."

He was freakin' spinning the sword on the hilt-wrap again. Show-off. "Will you quit fuckin' showing off?"

-"I'm not showin' off." The echo in his voice was gone. Suddenly, Hiyori saw that he had two lengths of white hilt-wrap wound around his wrist...and Ichigo threw his Soul Slayer at her. He freakin' THREW IT! Hiyori dodged, then moved in for an attack. She slashed him across the arm before he could catch his sword...

...the hilt of which promptly slammed into Hiyori's back, in between the shoulder blades.

-"Tch. I gotta admit, that IS a neat move." Ichigo said aloud.

_-'Thanks.'_

-_'Ichigo...'_ Zangetsu...hadn't heard from him in a while.

-"Right...TIME!"

-"NINE" Yadomaru called out. Ichigo blocked another vicious stroke from Hiyori. The two continued trading blows, until...

-"Getsuga Tenshou." This time, Hiyori dodged it. Flash-Stepping sideways, Ichigo followed up, throwing Zangetsu at Hiyori.

-Nice try, asshole." She caught it by the hilt, but the sheer weight of the enormous weapon almost made her drop it. This thing was heavy. "Amateur." She said, still sneering. Ichigo smirked again. What the hell was he smirking so much about?

-"Amateur yourself." He retorted, and yanked on the hilt-wrap. Hard.

Hiyori lurched forward with the sword...and Ichigo kicked her in the face, shattering the mask. He then pulled off his own.

"Time, Lisa!"

-"Twenty-one. You've nearly doubled your time." She sounded surprised. The others just stared stupidly.

-"Holy. Fuckin'. Shit." Hirako Shinji. A creepy bastard. Like, creepier than that white-haired sonofabitch with the snake-face, Ichimaru. "What the hell've you been doin', you prick?"

-"You ain't exactly one to talk, Smiley. To answer your question, WE," he hefted his sword - a somewhat difficult task, as it was as long as he was tall - "have been training. Now shut up ten minutes, I need to sleep."

Having returned to his physical body - which technically speaking he used like a Gigai, except his was the genuine article instead of a reproduction, Ichigo lay down, setting his mask on his face upside down so it covered his eyes altogether, and fell asleep.

...Right on top of Lisa's magazine.

"I'm back here again."

-"Here to fight, King?" There he was - Kuroichi. I gave him that name, 'cuz he said he didn't have one. Kuroichi - Black(Kuroi) One(Ichi). Kinda fits - Kinda ironic, too, since of the two of us, I'm the one that wears black. He's all white, except the eyes, and the insides - that's black. He even freakin' bleeds black.

Yeah. Kinda fits.

-"Hell, no. I'm here to friggin' get some rest. Ain't seen you in a while, K."

-"K? The Hell's that?" Shit. I knew, but he didn't.

-"Short for "Kuroichi" - Your name."

-"I ain't got a name."

-"Sure you do, since I just gave you one. Idiot."

-"Thanks...Ichigo." First time he called me that since...well, the very first time we met. He smirked again. "You stole my move."

-"Our move, partner. You, me, the old man - same thing. Like I said before - All three of us."

-"Ichigo." The voice belonged to Zangetsu, a long-haired, forty-something with a really cool coat and sunglasses - at least, that's what he looks like. I hadn't seen nor heard of him in ages.

-"Hey, pops. Haven't seen you in a while. Well, you know - like this." Zangetsu didn't answer. Kuroichi didn't say a thing. Ichigo was asleep.

"You feelin' better?" Hacchi asked Ichigo as he woke up. Hacchi was a huge guy, but friendly. Helped Inoue out of a tight spot once with her powers...One of 'em...Tsubaki, was it? Yeah. That one got destroyed. He fixed it right back up. Ichigo saw that his forearm was healed, as were the other minor cuts he'd gotten fighting Hiyori.

-"Yeah. Thanks, Hacchi."

He looked at his mask, which was intact. Which was weird - Ichigo usually broke the mask off, when someone else didn't do it to him, or else it would break off on its own. He decided he'd keep this one. He stood up and headed towards the exit

"I'm goin' home. Seeya..." THWAP. Paper slammed into the back of his neck. Ichigo turns around to see. It's Lisa's porno.

-"What?

-"You slept on top of it, asshole, it's got your sweat all over it. You owe me a new one."

-"Fine." He handed her ten bucks and shoved the stupid thing into his backpack with his mask, then headed home.

He was met on the way by Rukia.

"Yo." He greeted her.

-"Training here again?"

-"Can't time myself when I'm fighting me."

-"What?"

-"Long story." He told it to her on the way home. The Hollow, Zangetsu, everything - from when he was training with Urahara, even.

-"So that's why..." She'd seen the Mask for the first time just recently, and he hadn't explained it to her yet. "And how'd it go?"

-"Well, Trainin' with him and old man Zangetsu on the side, we doubled our time. So, we won. Me an' Kuroichi, I mean."

-"Black One. Fits"

-"I thought so too...I think he liked it."

-"That's good."

* * *

End of Chp1. This started out as a One-Shot to kill time. I had previously uploaded it already, but it got deleted, so I lost the reviews from all those readers. Thank you very much everyone! 

In other news, I changed my pen name. And I decided that you readers who were great enough to review this little story deserved a continuation, so brace yourselves and read on, to CHAPTER TWO!!

For now. R&R, please?


	2. Confrontation: The Truth in the open!

**Just another day.**

**DISCLAIMER**

_BLEACH _belongs exclusively to Kubo Tite, and whoever is responsible for distributing the anime and/or manga. I don't own it; I'm just a fan with no job or money.

This is just random, something I wrote to kill time. CONTINUATION!!! This is set right after the previous chapter, so no spoilers. Ichigo gets home and goes straight to bed. Isshin inquires…

Rated for Language. I mean, it's Ichigo for crissakes!

**AN:** _Italics_ is thought-type stuff. Like Ichigo's Hollow or Zangetsu talking to Ichigo in his head. Or Ichigo talking to them.

-"Yuzu, Karin. I'm home."

-"GOOD EVEEENIIING, ICHIIIGO!" Ichigo saw his father coming and, sidestepping nimbly, slammed his left elbow in between Isshin Kurosaki's shoulder blades. The old man was up the next instant anyway.

-"UNWORTHY SON, what're you doing getting home this late?"

-"It's not that late, Dad, it's six-thirty. And anyway since when do you care?"

-"Well you're late! And you're getting no dinner."

-"Father..." Yuzu.

-"That's okay, Yuzu. I'm not hungry anyway."

-"But Ichigo..."

-"I'll see you in the morning."

Ichigo Kurosaki tossed his bag aside and lay down on his bed. Eyes closed, he visualized the white mask, with its row of blood-red stripes running across the left side.

"A vizard...And all this time, I thought I was just a Soul Reaper. But I wasn't...was I?" Ichigo shook his head.

"No. I don't give a damn what that Shinji bastard says. I am a Soul Reaper."

_-Are ya?_

-Fuck off. I just wanna be alone.

_-So mean of ya, King. And here I thought we were makin' progress.'_ He laughed, the cold high-pitched sound echoing in Ichigo's ears.

-Look, just leave me alone, Kuroichi, all right? I don't want to put up with you right now.

Regardless of the fact that he and Kuroichi were one and the same, opposite sides of the same coin, Ichigo still couldn't stand the bastard. He reminded him too much of what Shinji had said.

That unless he could maintain permanent, complete control, and crush Kuroichi into the very innermost core of his soul, one day he would lose control...and everyone he knew would pay the price.

-"Karin, I'm worried about Ichigo."

-"Why?"

-"Because, he's skipping dinner again. That's three times this week. D'you think he..."

-"What?" The truth was, Karin still didn't know what to think of Ichigo. She still remembered that time, not so long ago, when she'd confronted him.

They'd suddenly felt something...a kind of strange pressure, and then Ichigo had...seemingly exploded out of his own body, and come out wearing black clothes and a sword...an enormous sword, wrapped in white and strapped across his back.

He'd come back covered in bandages.

-"Don't worry, Yuzu, let Daddy comfort you!"

-"Get AWAY, YOU OLD PERVERT!" Isshin once again made one of his usual perverse attempts at getting to Yuzu, and was rewarded by Karin's sneakered right foot slamming into his most sensitive spot.

He keeled over.

"Still, Yuzu, I really don't think there's anything to worry about. He's probably just...busy...like, at school, ya know?"

-"Okay." Yuzu was making a face, but she at least agreed to let it rest for the evening, and they finished eating in relative quiet.

While Yuzu and Karin were cleaning up the dining room and kitchen, Isshin said he was going to check up on Ichigo.

He opened the door to find hsi son on the bed, in the dark.

Inside the partly-open bag Ichigo usually carried to school, he caught a glimpse of something.

Leaping into the room, he lunged for the bag.

"LET'S SEE WHAT'S IN ICHIGO'S BAG TODAY!!!"

-"Let go of my bag, you crazy old man!" Ichigo's arm lashed out and grabbed onto one of the two straps just as Isshin caught the other.

The two continued tugging the bag back and forth, Ichigo yelling for his father to let go.

Isshin reached into the now-open bag and whipped out the magazine Ichigo had "purchased", however unvoluntarily, from Lisa that afternoon.

Brandishing it, he yelled. "Ichigo! My son is becoming a man, I am so proud! But you know..."

-"GIMME THAT!" Ichigo reached across, snatching the magazine back.

"AND LET GO!!" As Isshin tugged the bag backwards, Ichigo pulled as hard as he could.

The bag split in half, and Isshin hit the ground, while Ichigo was thrown back onto the bed. Why he hadn't thrown the damn magazine out as soon as he got home didn't matter, but he immediately slammed it into the wastepaper basket.

Too late he saw the white object reach the top of its arc after it had been thrown free of the torn bag, and come spiralin g down to land with a loud THUMP on the floor.

Isshin, who'd just gotten up and had been standing facing the door, turned around just as Ichigo stood from the bed. His eyes went wide as he looked at the object, then at his son.

"Ichigo...what the hell is that?"

Isshin Kurosaki and his son stood at opposite ends of the room, looking at each other.

On the floor in between them was the intact, white mask, its dark eyeholes seeming to glare malevolently at the ceiling.

"Ichigo, what is a Hollow's mask doing in your backpack?"

DUN DUN DUN DUN!!! Well, I decided to continue this one after all. And Chp2 ends in a cliffhanger at that, I am so evil.

And yes, I changed my pen name.

Well, what do y'all think?

Thanks to all of you who had reviewed this already. I am very sorry that the story got deleted, so I lost all your wonderful reviews, but after so long I have at last decided to grant you a continuation.

R&R, everyone, please, and thank you!


	3. Message from the Author, PLEASE READ!

Yes, after an ages-long hiatus, I have at last returned to the wonderful world of fanfiction-writing. I first want to thank everyone for helping me with this by reviewing. I appreciate it.

**Just another day**

**DISCLAIMER**

BLEACH belongs exclusively to Kubo Tite, and whoever is responsible for distributing the anime and/or manga. I don't own it; I'm just a fan with no job or money.

This is just random, something I wrote to kill time. CONTINUATION!!! This is set right after the previous chapter, so no spoilers. Ichigo gets home and goes straight to bed. Isshin inquires…

Rated for Language. I mean, it's Ichigo for crissakes!

AN: Italics is thought-type stuff. Like Ichigo's Hollow or Zangetsu talking to Ichigo in his head. Or Ichigo talking to them.

"Ichigo, what is a Hollow's mask doing in your backpack?"

Ichigo Kurosaki looked in obvious surprise at his father, shocked at his words, but shocked more still at the grave expression he wore. On the ground in between the two was a white mask with dark eyeholes, a series of blood-red stripes running down the side of its face.

"You're a Soul Reaper, aren't you? So why that mask?"

Ichigo reached for a pentagonal object at his waist, and placed it right atop his heart. Instantly, his body collapsed on the ground. He stood now, wearing black robes, a massive blade wrapped in white fabric slung to his back.

"How…"

-"I sensed it. I've known from almost the beginning." And in a flash of light, Isshin Kurosaki revealed himself to his son as a Soul Reaper.

**TO BE CONTINUED**

**Frankly, I'm totally out of ideas as to how to continue this right now. I'm going to ask you all to please help me come up with some way to wrap this up satisfactorily.**


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